#thank u spider lily guy for being on tumblr my best birthday gift mwah even if you write tbrm

[beatriceportinari]

okay this is. not 100 words. it is not a drabble at all. happy birthday, laetitia! here is. Blorbo In Situation.

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izuna stands in the grand kitchen shared by the compound surrounded by dirty dishes. some of the children had offered to help him, well-mannered as they are, but he had waved them off; he thinks it better if they enjoy the stars and the fireflies and still air. in the face of his workload, he wishes he’d maybe at least asked some of the teenagers to contribute.

“do you have a moment?” tobirama calls from the doorway. izuna is surprised madara has let him out of sight, current guest of honor or not. they all know he’s a glorified political hostage for the duration of his stay, and the banquet was only pretense. a show of the uchiha’s nobility.

“for what?” izuna asks, too tired to fight and too wary to be kind.

“a number of civilians are waiting for baths. the line has become… long,” tobirama says, awkwardly.

“it takes time to pump it.”

“and if i could have your supervision, i could solve the problem immediately,” tobirama says, with a terse tone izuna doesn’t like.

the dirty dishes will still be here when he gets back, so he wordlessly walks out of the kitchen toward the baths, and lets tobirama trail behind him.

“i’m watching you,” izuna warns, even though there’s no need to.

“i’m well aware,” tobirama responds, and izuna knows the tone of his voice well enough to hear the scowl that comes with it.

the jutsu tobirama uses to summon forth the water to refill all the basins is one izuna has seen more times than drops of rain in a storm, but the one that follows, to filter the water of impurities, is novel. izuna watches it, sharingan activated half-heartedly and lazily; tobirama goes through the signs for it so slow a toddler could copy them. a birthday gift, then.

for reasons even the goddess herself might not understand, when tobirama is done assisting with baths, he follows izuna back to the kitchen. before izuna can reach for the soap and sponge, tobirama steps cleanly into the way.

“what are you getting at now?” izuna asks.

“more than you, with hands like those,” tobirama says, and has the audacity to sneer.

izuna’s hands dry and crack easily in the winter. he’s never retained moisture well, and he has to wash his hands frequently, with how often he helps with food preparation and palliative medical care. he glances to them now, and finds a trickle of blood from worn skin across a number of his knuckles.

“wipe your hands clean and dry the plates,” tobirama says, and izuna, in all his magnamity, decides to do so. he’ll think of something to return the favour in the coming days, when he’s trapped at the senju and it’s tobirama who has lived to see another year.

tobirama begins to scrub the filthy remains of his own banquet.

they do the dishes in silence.